Darwin Mega Gull

January 2017

Australia is not really known for its gulls. Colloquially referred as "the land of parrots", the finer points of gull identification, plumage and vagrancy are topics that are rarely discussed through the various birding forums. We have only 3 resident gull species - the Silver Gull, Pacific Gull and Kelp Gull, approximately 16 species of regular migrant and resident terns and 3 resident Noddy species. So when a slightly unusual looking member of the laridae family turns up (particularly if its a gull!) the excitement amongst twitchers grows exponentially.

​2016 had been a great year for vagrant gulls in Downunder. We had had 3 separate records of Franklin's Gull (Port Denison WA, Macquarie Harbour TAS, Darwin NT), a long staying (late May to present) Laughing Gull nicknamed "Chuckles" at Venus Bay in South Australia as well as another highly likely Laughing Gull observed in December from Eltham in Victoria. I myself had enjoyed the wonders of Chuckles during a twitch in July but was still rather embarrassed about my dismal vagrant gull tally for an Australian twitcher. According to BARC, Australia has recorded 8 species of vagrant gull including Sabine's Gull, Black-headed Gull, Laughing Gull, Franklin's Gull, Black-tailed Gull, Mew Gull, Slaty-backed Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull. Keen to improve on my vagrant gull total, I was always on the lookout for gull reports and come January 12th, my wishes were answered.

​Local birder Gav O'Brien located an 'unusual gull' during a wader survey off Lee Point in Darwin. His notes included "...larger than the Silver Gulls, more the size of a Kelp Gull or Pacific Gull...". After some images were located via the NT Birds Email Group, the first identification calls went up as a Slaty-backed Gull. Soon the images were spread via the Australian Twitchers page on Facebook and the twitching community were stumped. Discussion ensued over a variety of contenders including Vega Gull, Caspian Gull, Mongolian Gull and Heuglin's Gull - all of which would be firsts for Australia.

Thousands of waders at Lee Point

Beach Stone Curlew

Setting out at Lee Point

​For me, the identification at this point was irrelevant as any of those species would not only be a lifer, but a major tick to get on my Australian list. I called Sue Taylor and we booked flights. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) I was away in Queensland booked on a Southport Pelagic so I was going to have to wait until Monday in order to twitch the bird. We decided to risk it and wait a few days, concluding it was too rare a bird not to chase! Mike Carter, legendary Australian twitcher and birder, called to say he was going up on the weekend to search for the bird himself and he'd keep us posted on additional information as it came in. That's where all the trouble started...

After getting off the boat after a successful Southport pelagic I logged on to see that the Mega Gull in question hadn't been located all day Saturday, despite many birders searching all across Darwin. The following day the same thing happened and by Monday morning I was feeling like this whole twitch may turn into a serious dip. This feeling was cemented further still when Mike called to say he was on his way home after dipping himself in Darwin. Either way, I picked up Sue and we hightailed to the airport, eventually touching down in the Top End around 10.30pm on Monday night. The plan was to search Lee Point (where it had last been seen on Friday) and then work our way to the rubbish dump, which somewhat miraculously hadn't been searched yet by the local birders.

Morning came and we were up before dawn and on our way to Lee Point. Arriving we immediately saw many local specialties which thrilled us southern Victorian birders such as Spangled Drongo, Rufous-banded Honeyeater, Orange-footed Scrubfowl and Blue-winged Kookaburra. Tearing ourselves away from the bush birds, we scampered down the shoreline where we began the long search for gulls. There were thousands of waders, mainly Red Knot and Great Knot but we also saw Whimbrel, Far Eastern Curlew, Greater Sand Plover and Lesser Sand Plover. We flushed a pair of Eastern Reef Egret (both a dark and light morph) from the rocks and eventually located a very small group of gulls. All Silver, nothing to see here.

Continuing along the beach we saw more and more waders and more local NT species such as Red-winged Parrot, Lesser Crested Tern, Red-collared Lorikeet and Green Oriole. Soon we bumped into one of my favourite species the very peculiar Beach Stone Curlew. Soon we noticed piles and piles of gulls searching out from the inland, close to where the Shoal Bay Waste Management Facility. We abandoned the beach and chased the flocks back up to the car park. They were seriously starting to spill out over the beach so we hurriedly checked every flying gull, eventually making the call to following the swarming up the road to Buffalo Creek, one of Australia's most well-known birding locations.

​Reaching the car park, we sprung out onto the beach and started crossing the water towards the spit where there was easily 2000 waders and around 150+ gulls roosting along the shore. We hadn't gone too far when Sue suddenly called out "there it is!" And of course, she was right! There amongst the plethora of Silver Gull stood our marvellous mega gull in all its splendour. I quickly rattled off a few photographs before texting it through to my twitching mate Glen Pacey, who was considering coming up in the next week.

We admired the gull for around 10 minutes from the shoreline before I waded out to the spit in order to improve on my photographs, conscious of the crocodile filled waters. Making it to shore, I filled up my camera and then decided to head back as the water was gaining serious depth. High Tide was at 8.50am and it was now almost 8.00am. Tried as we may, the gull did not call which would have aided immensely in the solving the puzzle of its identification. The gulls began to fly off slowly in little groups as the sand bar was slowly swallowed up by the ocean.

Sue and I had our tick (almost) and we thrilled! Now it was a matter to the birds identity. Following the IOC taxonomy, the bird is believed to be either Mongolian Gull (L. v. mongolicus), a subspecies of Vega Gull, Caspian Gull (Larus cachinnans) or Heuglin's Gull (L. f. heuglini) which is a subspecies of Lesser Black-backed Gull. Consulting the photographs, the bulging ventral area looks positive for Caspian Gull, but the big outward belly is said to be good in comparison with Yellow-legged and Herring Gull, not specifically with regard to Heuglin's which is from the Lesser Black-backed complex as mentioned above. Personally, I believe it is going to be Heuglin's. The extreme inner primaries suggest this species (or subspecies) more than all the other options, though the bird does seem to suggest features of both cachinnans and mongolicus. The paleness is a slight concern, but there are plenty of examples of this paleness through various literature and photographs. The other possibility I'm leaning towards would be a very worn juvenile Mongolian Gull (Vega Gull) perhaps a ver late post juvenile moult. But all these points considered, it seems more likely to be the Heuglin's which is a shorter leap than trying to see it as an extreme variant of these other candidates.

Chestnut-breasted Mannikin

Varied Triller

John Rawsthorne's shot of a Saltwater Crocodile at Buffalo Creek a few hours after I waded through...